In recent weeks, a large number of students have experienced difficulties with the new All School Resource (ASR) changes at MHS, which made students sign up for the study period on A days, the day before ASR. Students now rely on teachers to change their schedule if they forgot to sign up or sign up for the wrong ASR. This new rule has made students stressed, and some have even said that it is harmful to their learning. 

Over the week of Nov. 14, The Cardinal Chronicle elicited student and staff opinions on the change. The respondents included 25 freshmen, 15 sophomores, 17 juniors, 12 seniors and three teachers, all of whom gave the following feedback.

Stress and Anxiety

Many students are finding it difficult to determine where to sign up for ASR, particularly because they cannot take their B day classes into consideration. 

“It is more stressful to figure out where to go, especially in a day’s advance,” said freshman Annika Anderson. Students must now sign up by the A day deadline or be put into an unassigned category that they can’t get out of without teacher help. The unassigned category is causing spiraling effects, resulting in more work for advisors. Both students who did not sign up or were gone during the previous A day have struggled to find an open ASR that will admit them.

“This way has evoked anxiety in many students and it’s not fulfilling ASR’s purpose,” said an anonymous senior.

 Ratings of the New Policy

Out of the 75 responses collected, 54 — just over three quarters of the total responses — rated the new ASR change on a five-point scale as a one, saying it is extremely unhelpful in aiding students to remember to sign up for their ASR’s. Only twelve respondents gave the system a rating of two, and seven respondents rated it a three. The ratings for four and five out of the five point scale only got one vote each. 

“Please switch it back,” said freshman Lily Hanson. “This change is making me a less successful student.” 

Students are not the only ones finding the change in the ASR policy to be difficult to adapt into their lives.

“Confusion! Lots of unscheduled people asking for help. I don’t get to help students who need content help,” wrote an MHS teacher. 

Students who were not able to sign up before the deadline have been forced to go to an ASR and ask the teacher to mark them as present, and this has taken away from the students who signed up in advance to get needed help with coursework. 

Technical Difficulties for Teachers

The teachers have also experienced technical difficulties when creating their ASRs, especially with the unassigned category.

“On the teacher’s end of things, it is very easy to accidentally delete an entire section,” said another MHS teacher. “On the first day of the change, a teacher accidentally deleted the entire ASR offering where students that didn’t sign up were supposed to be placed. This forced the school to mark EVERYONE as present for that day’s ASR as far as I know.” 

The students who were in the unassigned category when it got deleted could go to any ASR without needing to be marked present. The issues experienced during the transition period have caused more trouble than FlexiSched ever did, according to many students and staff.

The Bright Side

All complaints aside, there were good developments that came out of the policy change, too.

“It is what it is,” said junior Logan Falcon. “If it solves issues with the website and keeps everything running smoother at the expense of a couple inconvenienced students that forget to sign up a day in advance, then while that sucks, it is what it is and it’s the way it has to be.” 

Falcon refers to the fact that the ASR change allowed for smoother running of the platform and less work for the supervisors overseeing the ASR sign-ups; the development was, in some ways, beneficial to both the students and them. 

 “I still don’t fully understand what the purpose of changing the asr policy, and I’m interested to see if the policy will improve whatever issue they were trying to fix,” said an anonymous senior. 

All in all, the changes in the ASR system are very difficult to adapt to in terms of the deadline, as well as being placed in the unassigned category as a result of that deadline. Many students are despondent with the change and prefer the original approach to ASR sign-ups, but in many ways the new system is advantageous to not only the staff coordinating the sign-ups, but also to some students. Although it is a challenging prospect, it all comes down to whether the MHS community is willing to accept and adapt to the changes made along with the difficulties that this new policy brings along with it, or continue to experience difficulties because of the sudden change.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The Cardinal Chronicle. Any content provided by our journalists is of their opinion and is not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual or anyone or anything.